The present invention relates to techniques for identifying and collecting record-keeping information.
The combination of recent technological innovations and an increasingly competitive business environment are placing progressively larger demands on the individual's time. As an individual attempts to juggle a range of activities and responsibilities, it is becoming increasingly more difficult for the individual to maintain records of these activities, for example, for tracking financial accounting, capturing information used in preparing income-tax returns, and/or generating a personal or business diary.
Furthermore, the number of sources that the individual uses to acquire or keep track of information is also increasing. For example, a computer user typically uses several applications to manage his personal and financial life, such as programs that facilitate email and schedules, financial management, photo management, personal and business website management, and/or personal and business document management. Unfortunately, data structures associated with these applications may be fragmented and stored at multiple locations which may make it difficult for both the individual and complementary applications to access the information. In addition, the applications are not always configured to communicate with each another for the purpose of allowing a user to collect information for cross-application referencing, for chronological and comparative record-keeping, and/or for maintaining a diary.
Therefore, the process of identifying and collecting such information is becoming an increasingly difficult and time-consuming task. As a consequence, users are less likely to be diligent about keeping such records, and even when users (such as small business owners) maintain such records, their efforts may be rushed, and thus, incomplete and/or inaccurate.